oops, four and a half weeks

so apparently i can't handle public blogging. i kept thinking about what i could post in the past weeks that would describe what i'd been doing without actually being offensive. and i couldn't figure it out, so i simply didn't post. and that's no good, so we're back to private blogging.

so, as for what's been up - i decided that i can't actually stay in my current apartment, basically. while i tried to describe gudrun's ocd/neurotic/mean behavior in a highly diplomatic way for public consumption, for those of you who can now read this i'll give a bit more of the full story. and full story short - she's the cleanest person i've ever met and got angry each time i used something in the kitchen or bathroom in a way that wasn't exactly how she wanted, or put something away in somewhere that wasn't exactly right, or left a door open, or a light on, or cleaned the stove wrong, etc. also, she made it clear that she thinks most americans are ignorant slobs, and while i might in fact share this sentiment to some degree, no one likes hearing such things from a neurotic german. and after a near break-down on her part after i cut beets on a cutting board and after washing it there was still a faint red spot, i decided i'd like to live somewhere where i feel like i can actually live without tip-toeing. also, her intense german weirdness reminds me of my host mom, who i really would die before living with again, so i sure as hell don't want to live with someone again who shares similar traits.

coincidentally, marija had still not been able to find a room in a shared apartment as of about two weeks ago, when i made my decision to move out, so we spent 8 days looking online and visiting at least one apartment per day, usually two or three. on the 8th day we were finally offered one, and we'll move in together on november 1st. gudrun has actually been out of town for about a week now, which made the whole search process less stressful. she was of course rather upset when i told her i was going to move out, though she had in fact stressed to me when i moved in that she didn't want to sign a contract because "who knows how our minds might change," which to me seemed like the beginning of a self-fulfilling prophecy. but anyway, i'm super excited to live with marija, since we'd in fact wanted to before but thought it might be too complicated. and the place is in neukölln, close to tim and to my new american friends marissa, lauren, and hannah. should be great.

in other news, school started this week, which was super exciting. monday was a "welcome day," meaning there were no classes, and language classes start next week, so i actually just went to two electives that i'm trying out and then our first get ma class with the whole gang. it feels so great to have everyone back together, and so exciting to be here instead of ankara. after our first class we all went to one of the dining halls and ate lunch together and joked about how different it is than the dining hall where we always ate in ankara. in ankara we were on a campus way outside of the city, but here the university is like nyu, with buildings just scattered around a neighborhood in the city center, but no actual campus. it really makes you feel like a part of the city, and the freedom offered to german university students is so much greater than in turkey it just makes me so happy to be here.

here is what my schedule looks like right now:
Winter Semester 2011/2012 Schedule:

Montag
Governing Wider Europe (GeT MA)
Unistr. 3b Room 205
12:00 – 2:00

Prozesse und Auswirkungen ethnischer Grenzziehungen in der Einwanderungsgesellschaft
Unistr. 3b Room 002
4:00 – 6:00

Modern Dance
Adlershof, Tanz-und Pilatesstudio
6:30 – 8:00

Dienstag
Ergänzungskurs: Grammatik B2
Sprachenzentrum, Dorotheenstr. 65, Raum 3.54
10:00 – 12:00

Mittwoch
Pilates
Gymnastiksaal Invalidenstr. 110 4. Etage Raum 423
3:15 – 4:15

Donnerstag
Die Arabischen Revolutionen - ein Paradigmenwechsel in den IB?
Unistr. 3b Room 002
10:00 – 12:00

Democratic Theory and European Case Studies (GeT MA)
Unistr. 3b Room 002
12:00 – 2:00

Contemporary Germany (GeT MA)
Luisenstr. 56 Room 123
2:00 – 4:00 or 4:00 – 6:00

Freitag
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notice that i have no class on either friday or wednesday, which is pretty sweet. i'm taking pilates at school on wednesday so that i'll be forced to go up there, with the idea of spending the morning/afternoon before exercising in the library doing reading. should be lovely. also, the german class i'm taking is a strictly grammar class, which i rather desperately need. on top of that, i'm taking an elective in german, which will most certainly be challenging, but hopefully quite beneficial.

aside from school, i also went to a dinner meeting last night at my friend frithjof's house to talk about taking part in the german senior fellow's board of humanity in action, which is the fellowship i did in denmark. apparently the board is comprised of six people, and while there is technically supposed to be an election, only six of the fifteen of us offered the potential position expressed interest, so it seems that i'm automatically a member. that means that i'll be helping to write and edit the german senior fellows magazine, which is in english, as well as helping to guide the direction of hia in germany and offer a tether to senior fellows in the u.s. i'm quite interested in being an active member of the hia community, so i'm excited to see how this goes.

and in terms of fun, i've still been having lots of it. tim is having a party this saturday and i encouraged my new american friends to host a halloween party next week, so that should offer some good occasions for mixing get ma folk with new friends and potentially also meeting more people. also my chorus concert is next tuesday, which i'm not exactly prepared for, but i'm excited about anyway. so, although the whole housing business has been kind of intensely stressful and the main thing on my mind these past weeks, all is still well!

please do follow this blog, so that i know that someone is reading it! hugs to you all!